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About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.

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Under the RadarScenes

“Dark Winds” – Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten on Season Four

September 14

While shooting the fourth season of the 1970s set Navajo police drama Dark Winds, Kiowa Gordon got into character by blasting 1990s and 2000s post-hardcore, especially “The City Sleeps in Flames” by Arizona emo screamo b

Vintage & reissues

Read at Under the Radar ↗

ScenesLucy Dacus Shares Previously Unreleased Song “No Thank You, I Love You, Goodbye” Under the Radar

“It’s the only guitar that I’ve ever had stolen, and the neck was like a ’50s Les Paul. It was amazing”: Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have a theory about Stratocasters – and one legendary Strat in common

Gear“It’s the only guitar that I’ve ever had stolen, and the neck was like a ’50s Les Paul. It was amazing”: Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have a theory about Stratocasters – and one legendary Strat in common MusicRadar

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“Dark Winds” – Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten on Season Four

Related

ScenesLucy Dacus Shares Previously Unreleased Song “No Thank You, I Love You, Goodbye” Under the Radar

Gear“It’s the only guitar that I’ve ever had stolen, and the neck was like a ’50s Les Paul. It was amazing”: Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr have a theory about Stratocasters – and one legendary Strat in common MusicRadar

DAW & pluginsAutodafe updates Vintage Emulator Studio (VES) to v0.9.289.1 KVR Audio News

DAW & pluginsMorphulus updates Spectrus to v1.6.0 - New NAM Loader, Vintage Opto Phaser, 2 Amps, 3 Distortion Pedals KVR Audio News

GearHeritage Audio Herchild 670N compressor review: We’re going to need a bigger rack MusicTech

ScenesICEHOUSE Announce 2027 ‘Man Of Colours’ 40th Anniversary Australian Tour Music Feeds